I vividly remember my fascination with going to Harvard. Even though I was only 10 years old, it was an inexplicable desire that just made sense because of all the great things I’d heard about it. Now that I contemplate those days, I understand the validity of my dreams; even though the reason then was just the appeal of flying to foreign lands, it’s a very apt one, considering the stark and magnanimous differences between the Indian education system and that of other nations

You’re making it look worse for attention, you say, when all that everyone sees in me is a loose shirt with a bulge at the back like the...